Dell and Toyota

Recently in the Information Class, the Dell Hell case was discussed. Basically it was about a Blogger, Jeff Jarvis, who bought a Dell lemon in 2005 and constantly encountered unpleasant experience by Dell's incompetent customer service. He then started publishing comments regarding to his frustration on his blog, and various international news agencies also started referring to the comments on their magazines and websites. Interestingly, Dell's share price started declining.

Regardless whether the decline of the share price could be attributed to the comments, Dell's poor crisis management was something worth to analyse. If one is put in the same situation like Dell, what should he/she do to resolve the tension and further improve the company. The following points are some of my thoughts.

- Jeff Carrol, my classmate, suggested that perhaps Dell could "hire" Mr. Jarvis as an internal advisor so that Dell could understand what the customers need.
- Size does not matter. Internet has become transnational and allows information to flow on a click of the mouse. One customer may represent the entire community of the existing or prospective Dell users and, therefore, an organisation should not think a random criticism is that random.
- Do not be reactive. Be proactive. Sometimes apology may imply that a firm has committed a fault, but it is perhaps the best way to save its reputation and move on to improvise.
- Over the long term, a firm should put more attention on understanding what customers want. Although it may be more costly, a clear communication channel between customers and firms should be established.

The Dell case reminds me alot of Toyota. Toyota also denied the allegation at first but the chairperson was forced to apologise in the end. Reputation and trust are the souls for firms to survive in the modern world. Only by implementing and adopting sound crisis management, firms could still save itself from disasters if they do occur.